The collapse of the third and final attempt to revamp ObamaCare, sealed on Monday when Susan Collins became the third Senate Republican to oppose it, leaves the president’s party with a shutout in terms of major legislative victories. The GOP leadership officially pulled the plug yesterday, canceling the vote.

I never thought the Graham-Cassidy bill had much chance, given that the messy compromise—returning federal health money to the states, risking chaos by creating 50 separate markets—was so unpredictable. The effort seemed driven mainly by a Republican determination to get 50 votes for anything that could be called reform after the failure of the two previous bills.

I’m not suggesting the bill might have survived if Trump had said nothing about the NFL and NBA and devoted his Twitter account to health reform. The deep divide within the GOP was just too fundamental to overcome.

The hard-fought Alabama runoff battle had pitted Trump against some of his most loyal supporters including former chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and a slew of House conservatives who all backed Moore. Despite his outsider image, Moore seemed to have the edge over Strange from the start.

With 92 percent of the precincts reporting, Moore led Strange by 55 percent to 45 percent, a margin of more than 41,000 votes. State officials estimated a low turnout of between 12 and 15 percent of eligible voters.

Roy Moore is not losing. Roy is an outsider and the people have Donald Trump's back and will continue to do so. Mitch McConnell is the one who got kicked square in the nuts by spending so much money on Strange.

1989TransAm wrote:Roy Moore is not losing. Roy is an outsider and the people have Donald Trump's back and will continue to do so. Mitch McConnell is the one who got kicked square in the nuts by spending so much money on Strange.

Trumps pick gets destroyed by 10 points. Funny that trump is now the establishment and he went against the "non establishment' guy....LOL!

1989TransAm wrote:Roy Moore is not losing. Roy is an outsider and the people have Donald Trump's back and will continue to do so. Mitch McConnell is the one who got kicked square in the nuts by spending so much money on Strange.

Trumps pick gets destroyed by 10 points. Funny that trump is now the establishment and he went against the "non establishment' guy....LOL!

This is an interesting situation. Looking on from overseas one see two points of note. Firstly, the President's son-in-law J Kushner is reported to have recommended a vigorous support of Senator Luther Strange. The President followed this advice, losing political capital on account of the nature of the candidate he supported and losing doubly when that candidate was defeated. So, it was expensive advice to follow. This was not the first instance when the President's son in law has provided spectacularly wrong advice. One wonders whether the President is going to dismiss... Of course, were he to do that he'd have to do same with his famous daughter. Hard to imagine!

Secondly, President Trump owes his electoral success to a large block of citizens who are beyond dissatisfied with a system which has seen them impoverished and less and less secure in their daily lives. There are more and more people who are seeing their way of life, values and culture being damaged, if not destroyed, by previous (and present) government policies. That the candidate Donald Trump enunciated what many had come to understand provided them a hope and him a major success (in that he toppled every single one of the favoured establishment candidates). The present electoral outcome demonstrates that block of citizens is still existent and remains unsatisfied. That they voted against the President's recommendation is a warning that should he be seen to abandon their interests, they will go on to abandon him. It'd be safe to say that the President has been delivered a warning that his base is becoming restless with him. This could go on to become very serious should that block (representing around half of the population, maybe more) further lose hope in the system itself...

Trump found a parade of discontented voters and jumped in front of the parade. He did not construct or organize the parade; simply the current major domo.

But a major domo, he is the man in front and subject to all the rocks and tomatoes. Up coming elections will replace members of congress on both sides of the aisle until congress delivers what voters really want.